Transforming SEND in Knowsley

The services and support for children and young people with a Special Educational Need and Disability (SEND) is a priority for education, health and social care partners in Knowsley.

Education, health and social care are all working together with children, young people and their parents and carers to transform services and earlier this month, a multi-agency conference took place to reflect on what’s changed as part of the transformation of services and what still needs to be done to ensure that children with SEND have the opportunity to move into adulthood living as independent a life as possible with good outcomes.

At the conference, a young person who is accessing SEND support was able to describe his positive experiences whilst at school and also what he would have liked to have been done differently. Parents and carers also gave feedback on how they felt SEND support and provision could be improved in Knowsley.  This event was hugely popular and there will be future events scheduled.

A summary of the multi-agency event has been captured in the latest SEND newsletter.

As described in the SEND Strategy, the key priorities to be addressed that will enable us to make the transformations necessary to continue to improve all of our SEND services in Knowsley are:-

• Joint working across all SEND services, partners and families
• Co-production with children and young people with SEND and their parents / carers
• Improve education, health and care outcomes for children and young people with SEND
• Ensure all young people with SEND make a successful transition to adulthood
• Improve the quality of Education Health and Care Plans

You can read more about how these will be achieved in the SEND Strategy for 2018-2021.

Colette Dutton, Knowsley Council’s Executive Director for Children’s Services, said “In Knowsley, our vision is for all children and young people to have the best start in life, thrive, aim high and achieve their potential. Naturally, we want the same for those children and young people who experience special educational needs and / or disabilities. We know that by working together, more can be achieved, and our children and young people with SEND will get the opportunity to achieve their potential as they develop from early years through primary and secondary education and into adulthood.”